(or here’s a list of what launched yesterday that might deserve a closer look)

Project: Crews of Eridanus (Reboot)

Designer: Steadman Watson

Artists: Alexandra Burda, Il Ho (John) Kim, Mark Anderson (Big Whisky Design), Michel Fortin, Paul Kimber, Yulia Federova

Publisher: Dakota Ridge Games

Genre/Mechanisms: adventure, hexagon grid, movement points, pick up and deliver, science fiction, semi-coopeartive game, set collection, space exploration, solo / solitaire game

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A sandbox style, semi-cooperative spacefaring game of exploration and adventure. Each player represents the Captain of a small in-system spacecraft that has been selected by the authorities to help get the system economy and travel back to normal. As a Captain, you’ll need to recruit a crew and good crews don’t come cheap. Crews of Eridanus is an open world and there are a number of ways to earn credits: carrying passengers, trading cargoes, mining, exploring wrecks and hunting pirates. All players start with the same size of crew, ship and resources, but they are free to pursue whatever strategy they think best. Each player builds a unique tableau consisting of different crew members and ship modifications. The game is played over a series of rounds, with each player taking their respective turn. A player can usually take 3 actions per turn. The game starts in a pirate phase, where pirate ships occupy a number of locations on the map. If most of the pirates are destroyed, then the game shifts to a normal phase. Finally, the game enters an end phase after a pre-determined number of rounds have been played and a boss appears. There are multiple ways to defeat the boss, but if it is not dealt with quickly then all of the players will lose. If the players are successful in stopping the boss, whoever has the most Victory Points is the winner.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $83

All-In (w/shipping): $111

Campaign Ends: 4/7

Game Ships: Apr. 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 32% with 28 days to go.

Project: Envelopes of Cash: The College Football Recruiting Game

Designer: Andy Schwarz (Diplomacy: Classical Variant)

Artists: Miah Rose Serdone, Therese Ureta

Publisher: Envelopes of Cash LLC

Genre/Mechanisms: action points, card game, closed drafting, dice, dice rolling, end game bonuses, hand management, pick-up and deliver, set collection, solo / solitaire game, sports, turn order: auction, variable set-up

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A Euro board game with a very American theme: college football recruiting. Envelopes of Cash lets you be the head coach of a major football program, working closely with your bag men to make sure you come out on top in the race for the most recruiting points. With 120 different cards and a different mix of recruits across regions each time, the game offers high replay value, especially since there are many different ways to build a successful program that churns out points. Players square off as rival college programs, doing their best to attract the most valuable high schoolers to join their college teams. Game play is driven by a card draft, in which players acquire the potential to hire new personnel, build new facilities, strengthen their program’s culture, or boost their fundraising prowess, but to actually put those cards into play, the need to generate income via careful selection of 6 different colored dice, which are rolled at the start of each turn. Those dice generate the most valuable currency in the game — Envelopes of Cash — which are used to lure the athletes to your program. To succeed, you need to balance the benefits of your cards, which make recruiting easier, with the nuts and bolts of actually getting out there and recruiting, by sending lots of recruiting mail, traveling to visit the athletes in their home states, and most importantly, slipping them those valuable tokens of your affection in little colored envelopes.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $80

All-In (w/shipping): $80, same as above

Campaign Ends: 5/4

Game Ships: Oct. 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 94% with 55 days to go.

Project: The FOG – Escape from Paradise

Designer: Robert Müller-Reinwarth

Artists: Unique Litani Soparie (Doomtown: Reloaded, Dungeon Alliance, Shiver Me Timbers)

Publisher: Xollox Games

Genre/Mechanisms: closed drafting, end game bonuses, fantasy, grid movement, hexagon grid, movement points, race, variable set-up

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “The villagers of a lonely island are trying in panic to reach their boats on the shore to escape the rapidly approaching mysterious, horrifying and perilous FOG that has taken over their island. You are playing a guardian coordinating the difficult path of several self-drafted islanders towards their boats – trying to save as many of them as possible. Each turn you use the available movement points for the various movement options like running, swapping, pushing, squeezing through, jumping and crossing, to move your selected islanders towards the rescuing boats. While the beach is packed and everyone is in panic, will you stay calm and assure that your islanders reach their boats before the FOG reaches them? For your achievements you will receive or lose rescuing points. The guardian with the most rescuing points wins the game against The FOG and the other players. The game combines tactical depth, interactive dynamics and a high variability through the islanders many different movement options and a very variable setup.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $46

All-In (w/shipping): $64

Campaign Ends: 4/7

Game Ships: Apr. 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 69% with 28 days to go.

Project: Hamlet: The Village Building Game

Designer: David Chircop (…and then we held hands., Petrichor, The Pursuit of Happiness)

Artist: Yusuf Artun

Publisher: Mighty Boards (Days of Ire: Budapest 1956, Excavation Earth, Petrichor)

Genre/Mechanisms: economic, fantasy, medieval, network and route building, pick-up and deliver, tile placement

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

Summary: “A medium weight competitive village builder where players are communally turning their Hamlet into a bustling little town. In this tile placing game, players construct buildings that everyone can use to create materials, refine resources, earn money and make important deliveries to construct the Hamlet’s big landmark – the Church. The game features irregular shaped tiles that connect together without a grid to form a village that is completely different every time. The tile placement organically creates interconnecting paths that the villagers use to transport resources across the village. This leads players to construct boards where no two games will ever feel the same. Since the buildings are communal, this also creates a fluid economy, where players are always working hard to provide the village with the resources that are most needed.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $73

All-In (w/shipping): $73, same as above

Campaign Ends: 3/29

Game Ships: Dec. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 599% with 19 days to go.

Project: The Last Gig

Designer: Dario “Dr. Pepper” Maggiore

Artist: Dario “Dr. Pepper” Maggiore

Publisher: Domm Factory

Genre/Mechanisms: action / event, card game, dice, race, roll / spin and move

Player Count: 2-4

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “A board game that simulates your band life on the road: unforgettable concerts and poor food, merch to sell after each Live, and records to be recorded in the studio. But mostly many, many, MANY kilometers to travel with your partners. There is only one way to beat your opponents: get on stage. On your turn, roll the dice, stop in the tour spaces, play in awesome venues, do live sessions to get (or lose) Tour Points, spin the Rock Wheel to or buy new Merch cards that you can sell at your next Live session. Race around, gather as much Tour Points as possible, and be the first to finish the game with your Last Gig.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $82

All-In (w/shipping): $120

Campaign Ends: 4/5

Game Ships: Jan. 2023

Funding Status: Currently at 12% with 26 days to go.

Project: Monster Pit

Designers: Nick Seddon, Aron West (Catacombs, Catacombs & Castles, Catacombs Third Edition)

Artist: Kwanchai Moriya (Cryptid, Dinosaur Island, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Sidereal Confluence, Under Falling Skies)

Publisher: Elzra Corp. (Catacombs, Catacombs & Castles, Catacombs Third Edition)

Genre/Mechanisms: adventure, dice, cooperative game, critical hits and failures, deck construction, events, fantasy, fighting, hand management, market, one versus many, passed action token, role playing, solo / solitaire game, team-based game, variable player powers

Player Count: 1-5

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

Summary: “Monster Pit is *not* a dexterity game! It features tableau building, dice drafting, and hand management. Monster Pit marks the start of a new dungeon crawl experience from Elzra, with this first installment being a fully co-operative, fantasy adventure game set in the world of Catacombs. During the game, loyal Captains must rally their forces to defend the Citadel against the emerging threat of a creature from the deep. Think Gandalf rallying the forces of Minas Tirith in Return of the King. This is not a tower defense game, but blends several mechanisms including dice drafting (there are custom dice and rolls can be mitigated), tableau building (the player boards are extra large to organize the various cards), and worker placement (in terms of the various buildings your Captain will visit). Your Captain’s tableau will include soldiers, wizards, heroes, mounts, and wyverns. Some of these characters are for offensive purposes (attacking the Monster, etc.) and some for defensive purposes (building your resources including your dice pool). During the game player will also complete quests for the King, buy items from the Town Hall, ride a Mount, fight creatures in the streets of the Citadel, upgrade their Captain at the Armoury, visit the Dwarven Grotto for gold, and find helpful trinkets in the Fountain. The game supports ‘true solo’ (a solo player need only control one Captain), fully co-op multiplayer against the Monster, one vs one (one player controls the Captain, the other player controls the Monster), or one player (controlling the Monster) vs. up to four Captains. All play modes feature long or short variants. There are five monsters included in the game (Dragon, Enchantress, Behemoth, Vampire Queen, and Orc War Chief) both featuring ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides for greater challenge and variation.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $78

All-In (w/shipping): $336

Campaign Ends: 3/31

Game Ships: Nov. 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 63% with 22 days to go.

Project: Motor City

Designers: Adam Hill (Godspeed), Ben Pinchback (Fleet, Fleet: The Dice Game, Wasteland Express Delivery Service), Matt Riddle (Fleet, Fleet: The Dice Game, Wasteland Express Delivery Service)

Artists: Marlies Barends (Ortus, Three Sisters), Ilya Avakov

Publisher: Motor City Gameworks (Three Sisters, Tiny Farms)

Genre/Mechanisms: action drafting, dice, dice rolling, industry / manufacturing, paper-and-pencil, solo / solitaire game, roll-and-write

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

Summary: “A strategic roll-and-write game about running an auto plant in the heydey of Detroit. In Motor City, you have two player sheets, each with multiple areas. These areas are represented by tracks that you will mark off as you make progress. Many of the tracks are interconnected with other elements in the game, giving you bonuses along the way and opportunities to unlock more points. Advancing on all of these tracks offers various amounts of points, advancements, and bonuses. The game lasts eight rounds. Each round, roll colored dice based on the number of players, then place them on spaces on the blueprint table based on value and color. Each player drafts one die and uses it. Once everyone has drafted a die twice, all players get to use the remaining die on the blueprint table. After eight rounds, you score points for your progress in engineering, assembly, testing, and more. Whoever has the most points wins. Motor City has a solo mode in which you try to top your own score against an auditor that drafts dice and blocks areas of your sheet. Its difficulty can easily be adjusted by changing the colors of dice during setup, with no added rules.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $38

All-In (w/shipping): $38, same as above

Campaign Ends: 3/31

Game Ships: Nov. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 177% with 21 days to go.

Project: Route East

Designers: Jonny Hale, Petra Opelova, George Vernon-Hunt

Artist: Yulia Stepanova

Publisher: LostVenture Games

Genre/Mechanisms: abstract strategy, action points, advantage token, adventure, betting and bluffing, dice rolling, open drafting, print & play, race, resource to move, semi-cooperative game, travel

Player Count: 2-5

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: HIGH

Summary: “Race from Istanbul to Shanghai in a game filled with tense frustration, strategy and co-player vendettas. Based on a trip of a lifetime, Route East takes players across mountains, valleys, and stunning wonders of the less explored areas of the world while testing their planning and cunning skills. At the start of each turn, you pick an Ignition card and then you play your three moves. How you play them is up to you – you might decide to move on the board, or pick or play Action Cards that will give you various advantages throughout the game. You might also have to roll the dice to move depending on the circumstances. Plan your route through must-see attractions along the way, and develop a strategy based on budget, fuel, cunning and pure foul play. You’ll need an equal mix of skill, planning, and bloody savviness to get to Shanghai first.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $42

All-In (w/shipping): $55

Campaign Ends: 4/7

Game Ships: Dec. 2022

Funding Status: Currently at 80% with 28 days to go.

Project: Small City Deluxe Edition

Designer: Alban Viard (Clinic: Deluxe Edition, Small City, Tramways)

Artist: Kwanchai Moriya (Cryptid, Dinosaur Island, In the Hall of the Mountain King, Sidereal Confluence, Under Falling Skies)

Publisher: AVStudioGames (Clinic: Deluxe Edition, Small City, Tramways)

Genre/Mechanisms: city-building, economic, rondel, square grid, territory-building, tile placement, worker placement

Player Count: 1-4

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: heavy

Risk: medium-low

Summary: “You are the mayor of one borough of Small City, and you have eight turns to secure enough votes to be re-elected. To do this, you have to attract more citizens, encourage the growth of residential areas for them to live in, and aid the expansion of both the commercial and industrial sectors – though the latter sector also brings pollution with it, and you need to deal with that, too, as high pollution levels will have a negative effect on your score at the end of the game. If you build suitable infrastructure, your citizens will undoubtedly vote for your re-election, but beware of false promises. Votes can be earned over the course of the game by placing citizens in the residential spaces, by erecting cultural buildings, by keeping commercial buildings in suitable areas, and also by making good on the promises that you made to the citizens at the beginning of the game. The player with the most votes (i.e., victory points) after eight turns wins.

This new version includes: a new revised rulebook, new illustrations from Kwanchai Moriya, new variants that keep the best of the rules of the old edition, and a revised version of the solo game.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $86

All-In (w/shipping): $118

Campaign Ends: 3/31

Game Ships: Feb. 2023

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 165% with 21 days to go.

Project: Warpgate: Beyond (on Gamefound)

Designer: Artyom Nichipurov (Guards of Atlantis: Tabletop MOBA, Trick Shot, Warpgate)

Artists: not credited

Publisher: Wolff Designa

Genre/Mechanisms: area majority / influence, campaign / battle card driven, expansion, fighting, grid movement, hand management, modular board, point to point movement, science fiction, space exploration, variable phase order, variable player powers

Player Count: 1-6

Solo Mode: yes

Complexity: medium-heavy

Risk: medium-high

Summary: “A fast-paced game of hand management and area control. As a leader of a unique race of aliens, lead them towards triumph. Move your fleets of star-ships on a hex-based modular game board, establish colonies and outposts and engage your enemies in battles for the control of prized commodities. Research new technologies and grow your galactic empire.

Warpgate: Beyond includes new and reworked Objectives, new Tactics, Technologies, a separate deck for Solo AI, and more. It replaces all cards in the base game, and adds new ones, bringing the total to 242 cards (not counting the ‘daily unlocks’). Hero, Basic and Advanced Tactics cards were re-balanced and many new ones were added. All Technology cards were reworked and rebalanced. Two Solo-AI action decks are included in the expansion, enhancing the solo experience. Objective cards now have a partial completion mechanism, existing Objectives were reworked or re balanced, and new ones were added. A copy of the base game is required to play this expansion.”

Base Pledge (w/shipping): $29

All-In (w/shipping): $80

Campaign Ends: 3/17

Game Ships: Dec. 2022

Funding Status: Funded; currently at 355% with 7 days to go.